Things That Make Us Think

Is technology good or is it bad? Personally, I find it detestable. But
as soon as I say that, there are a million people who will argue how wrong
I am and how good technology is.

Actually, I think the question isn't even relevant. It probably isn't
appropriate to attach the connotation of good or bad with technology.
Technology simply is; if you don't like it, don't use it. It is something
that we have in large part created to make our lives more comfortable.
Perhaps the real question, then, is whether comfort good or is it bad. But
that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Nobody would ever ask because the
answer is so obvious. So why isn't the value of technology obvious?

One issue is that there is something about technology that makes people
uncomfortable: the fact that it lets us cheat. Technology lets us to break
one of the fundamental canons of those in power before (and those more
experienced than us) - namely, that discipline is good. The best way to do
something is the hard way. If something is too easy, people have almost a
native abhorrence toward it. Sometimes, technology lets us cheat. One
current example is diet pills that that let us gorge on food and not gain
weight.

The people who think that the hard way to do something is the best way
to do it may be entirely afraid of change. I remember my high school
insisted on using log tables when all students had easy access to
calculators. The dangerous thing wasn't that we wasted time but the fact
that we were conditioned into believing that learning easier ways to do
things were cheating.

Perhaps people dislike technology because it makes it easier for us to
destroy not only a few people but all of us. People also blame
environmental degradation on technology. But if it weren't for technology,
we wouldn't have the time to blame these things on anything or anyone. We'd
be too busy hiding from predators or foraging for food. Indeed, technology
may hold the solutions to problems like war and environmental problems.

There is another important reason technology is good for us: It
motivates us and gives us direction. I dislike sameness or repetition. The
only way to avoid them is to think of new things. Technology provides us
with new things to do and experience.

But in what sense does technology motivate us? It lets us transcend
ourselves. What does "transcend oneself" mean? Perhaps, it is the ability
to do something that we were previously incapable of doing. The important
idea is again killing sameness. Perhaps sameness implies boredom,
stagnation, death. Perhaps technology will let us cheat on the biggest form
of boredom and stagnation - death itself. Perhaps technology will allow us
to become gods.

Ultimately, however, technology gives us the ability to live comfortable
lives. Increasing our comfort level is the essence of technology. In that
sense, I am not arguing for technology per se. There is nothing holy about
technology itself. Technology has, however, given us more time to think and
to try new ideas. In that sense, I argue for the importance of openness to
ideas and concepts. It sounds easy when Isay it, but putting the idea into
practice is pretty hard. Making technology sacred itself implies we may
have hardened in our susceptibility to newness.

Progress in technology requires a willingness to set aside prejudices
and look at things in a different way. Our interpretation of the world
depends on preconceived ideas. So more specifically, what many people need
to do is at least try moving slowly toward changing the way they look at
things.

The idea of thinking being more important than the technology itself is
crucial. When I was younger, I used to think that because I had access to
better things or was living in an era that provided better things than, for
instance, the era in which my grandfather was my age, I was better. Thus,
current fashion or music had to be better than they were in the 1960s. One
almost always seemed to be "showing off" one's life in a "better" and
advanced age.

Not too long later, Irealized that things like clothing or music don't
mean much by themselves. Certain advances are often just trivial. A
household car, for example, may use advanced technology by entering or
leaving the house using an electronic sensor. But who would argue that that
cat is any better than any other cat? The use of technology by itself is
not enough or even particularly interesting. It is the thought processes
that lead to better technology that are more important.

Technology allows us to change ourselves and our surroundings very
quickly and dramatically. Technology is a good way to produce new
conditions. But some people are afraid of this pace of change. Perhaps that
is because we sometimes have a tendency toward producing a devices and
value systems that completely disorient us, like the atomic bomb. But I
still prefer to have change. The alternative is simply too stagnant.